You've reached the internet home of Chris Sells, who has a long history as a contributing member of the Windows developer community. He enjoys long walks on the beach and various computer technologies.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003, 12:32 PM in Conference
Part 1 of Aaron's Applied XML Dev.Conf. talk
Here. "Some XML applications don't require validation to function properly but others absolutely require it in one form or another to avoid disasters. Aaron Skonnard discusses when validation is a MUST, then presents different implementation techniques for tackling the problem."
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003, 12:29 PM
Lawrence Lessig on copyrights, patents and freedom
Here. Chris Anderson [1] is right. Now only is this a great presentation on the battle ranging between "theft" and "freedom," but the style in which it's given is fabulous. [1] simplegeek.com
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003, 11:46 AM in .NET
Scott Guthrie's ASP.NET Whidbey Demo
Here. ScottGu describes his ASP.NET Whidbey demo at the ASP.NET Connections conference. I'm no ASP.NET programmer, but that *is* one tasty dish...
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003, 9:14 AM in The Spout
How Does One Obtain Inside Information?
Here. The one where I list the steps I use to figure out stuff that isn't documented.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003, 12:00 AM in The Spout
How Does One Obtain "Inside" Information?
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
I got an email today from John Reilly today asking me a question I get from time to time:
I got my signed copy of your book. It is a great read. You have information that a friend and I have been trying to dig out for weeks.
Which leads me to our question. How do you find out all those details? They are not to be found in the MSDN documentation, as far as we can tell. Do you just experiment, like we do? We have been unable to find any .NET training that is much more than how to use the IDE. Alan and I crave detail, meat, the stuff of your book. Seriously, how does one obtain this seemingly inside information? We are personally and professionally motivated weenies.
Now that I'm a Microsoft employee, I have access to not only the source for most of what I'm researching, but the architects and internal mailing lists populated by the developers on the project, so that really is "inside information." However, over the 8+ years that I was a contributing member of the Windows developer community, 99% of what I've done has not been based on inside information. So, before I had access to internal info, how did I figure stuff out if the docs don't answer my questions? I do the following, in order of decreasing frequency:
- I experiment, writing hundreds of projects consisting of 10 lines of code or less to experiment with particular features
- I read the source, even if that means reverse engineering it first (Reflector is fabulous for .NET code)
- I search on the Microsoft-specific Google search page
- I IM, email and call my friends who know more than I do (which is most of them : )
- I ask questions on my favorite mailing lists and newsgroups
- As a last resort, I ask my friends at MS. Buying a Microsoftie a beer at a conference, being smart in online forums and saying nice things about their technologies are all excellent ways to gain friends at MS
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2003, 11:12 AM
Why I F-ing Hate Weblogs!
Here. I found this *hilarious*! I consider myself the "Aspiring Writer" type (although clearly with a bit of "Town Crier" thrown in : ). Warning: Not to be read by small children or while operating heavy machinery. [radio.weblogs.com/0001011]
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2003, 3:23 AM in .NET
Use VS.NET to install .NET w/ your app
Here. The VS.NET teams has placed a "preview" version of their VS.NET .NET Framework Bootstrapper Plug-In up on GotDotNet. [weblogs.asp.net/duncanma]
Saturday, Oct 11, 2003, 12:07 PM
Missing Foo Camp
Here. Tim O'Reilly himself invited me, but I just can't be there because of my work load before the PDC. : (
Friday, Oct 10, 2003, 4:36 PM
Joel on Character Set Encodings
Here. Joel lays out a very nice piece on encoding that drives home one point very clearly, "There Ain't No Such Thing As Plain Text." He also provides some supporting facts, which makes it all the more fun. Enjoy.
Friday, Oct 10, 2003, 12:15 PM
Eric Sink on Outlook 2003
Here. I agree with Eric. The old version of Outlook was a love/hate thing for me. Outlook 2003 is mostly love. Thanks, guys!
Friday, Oct 10, 2003, 11:08 AM in The Spout
Amazon giving 30% off WinForms Programming in C#
Here. I think those Amazon guys knew I was talking about them...
Friday, Oct 10, 2003, 11:01 AM in Fun
Guerrilla Usability Group Strikes!
Here. I *love* the idea that militant usability experts are scraping terribly designed web sites to present the information in a more pleasant way. Can't you just see Alan Cooper in a beret? : )
Friday, Oct 10, 2003, 1:30 AM
I've been enjoying Feedable
Here. Roy Osherove wrote a component for turning web sites into RSS feeds, then starting taking requests for web sites that don't have RSS feeds. He even put up a couple just for me. Thanks, Roy.
Thursday, Oct 9, 2003, 11:18 PM in The Spout
What Is An RSS Feed?
Here. The one where I describe RSS to the world's youngest mutual fund manager and my Mom.
Thursday, Oct 9, 2003, 9:17 PM
The Wedding Toast
Here. Don and I send out a video of a toast to a newly married couple. We get back their reactions via video. Not as nice as real-time, but I don't get overseas much, so still very cool. You gotta love the Internet!